Most Recent Episodes

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Early Beacon
Barely a billion years after the Big Bang, a brilliant light was already shining across the universe. It was thousands of times brighter than a whole galaxy of stars. Yet ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Early Beacon
Barely a billion years after the Big Bang, a brilliant light was already shining across the universe. It was thousands of times brighter than a whole galaxy of stars. Yet ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Quasars
A quasar is an impressive contradiction. It’s among the brightest objects in the universe, yet it’s powered by one of the darkest — a supermassive black hole. The first quasars ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Quasars
A quasar is an impressive contradiction. It’s among the brightest objects in the universe, yet it’s powered by one of the darkest — a supermassive black hole. The first quasars ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
False Alarm
Astronomers in California are trying a new way to look for ET. They’re using a high-speed camera on a telescope at Lick Observatory to look for the pulses of infrared ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Omega Centauri
Aliens live among us. They come from other galaxies, and enter orbit around the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. They’re not trying to hide from us, though ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Alpha Centauri
The key to a star’s appearance and lifespan is its mass. Heavier stars shine brighter but live shorter lives than less-massive ones. An example can be seen in the two ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Moon and Leo
Binary star systems are among an astronomer’s best friends. Measuring the mutual orbit of the two stars reveals the stars’ masses. Comparing the characteristics of the binary stars to individual ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Moon and Jupiter
Until a couple of decades ago, Jupiter was the king of the planets — the biggest, heaviest world yet discovered. Today, it’s still the king of our own solar system ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Moon and Companions
The crescent Moon stands at the middle of a beautiful celestial grouping this evening. That grouping includes the planets Venus and Jupiter — the second- and third-brightest objects in the ...

05:00 UTCStarDate Online
Saturn at Opposition III
The planet Saturn is best known for its amazing rings. They span about two-thirds of the distance from Earth to the Moon, and seen from the right angle they can ...